Building a Year-Round Communications Calendar

How to Effectively Communicate with Your Population

Ensuring that your organization's communications about employee benefits are clear, concise and easily digestible will help boost their effectiveness. Employees must be able to clearly understand what each communication is targeting in order to take any kind of action after consuming the information.

Some common challenges that employers face when crafting communications about employee benefits are:

• Information overload. Providing too much information at one time for employees can be detrimental to the success of a communications plan. Providing too much information could result in lack of engagement and misunderstanding of the benefits being explained. Calling out specific benefit highlights can ensure employees are understanding the value of each benefit being presented.
• Ignoring employee feedback. Ensuring that employees have an avenue to submit feedback on the communications surrounding employee benefits helps employers receive comments directly from employees on what is working or not working. When employee feedback is ignored, it can have a direct impact on future engagement with employer content.
• No call to action. Employee communications should both educate and provide a clear next step for employees to take regarding their health. For example, a communication about the importance of primary care providers should encourage employees to choose a primary care provider for their family, perhaps even linking to medical plan network tools to help them find a provider in their area.
• Using a one-size-fits-all approach. It is important to customize messaging and channels to each of the audiences that you're trying to reach and educate. With multiple generations in the workforce, it is important for employers to understand how each generation prefers to consume content.

The method or channel that an employee receives the information can also result in a vast difference in information consumption by the employee. For an employer, this could mean sending the communications via various channels throughout the organization. As some employees may prefer receiving company messaging via email, others may prefer getting their information via text or a home mailer. 

Let's take a look at some additional communications channels that employers can explore.

• Email Newsletters: Regularly scheduled emails can provide updates, reminders, and detailed information about benefits.
• Intranet Portals: A dedicated section on the company intranet can serve as a central hub for all benefits-related information.
• Webinars and Workshops: Interactive sessions where employees can learn about benefits and ask questions in real-time.
• Printed Materials: Brochures, posters, and flyers can be distributed in common areas or mailed to employees’ homes.
• Text Messages: SMS alerts can be used for urgent updates or reminders about important deadlines.
• Video Messages: Short videos from leadership or HR can make the communication more engaging and personal. According to HubSpot, when people hear information, they likely only remember 10% of that info three days later. But, when paired with a relevant image, people retain 65% of that same information. 
• Surveys and Feedback Forms: These can be used to gather employee input and improve the benefits communication strategy.

Measuring Communication Effectiveness

When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of your communication channels, there are several key factors that employers can look at. When it comes to email communications, employers should be reviewing employee engagement via open and click rates. These metrics can tell an organization how many people are opening the email communications and which content most employees are engaging with. This insight can help guide future communications crafting and planning, whether it be varying send times or subject lines. When communicating via an employer intranet metrics on page views, time of page and downloads can provide data on what content may be the most valuable to the viewer. For in person events, measuring attendance and gauging audience engagement and attentiveness throughout the presentation can also tell and employer what information may be the most appealing to the audience.

Keeping employees educated and aware of the benefits available to them is a large part of the success of any good health plan, and clear communication is key to making that happen. By sharing clear and timely information regularly, employers can make health plans easier to understand, ultimately helping employees make more informed choices about their healthcare spending. This approach not only helps employees take charge of their health but also creates a supportive environment where health and well-being are always top of mind. Reach out to your AssuredPartners team for more ways on how to engage your employee population throughout the plan year.